Indoor fun

[Discussing Labradoodles & Goldendoodles]

It's been rainy, icy, cold and yucky for the past week. Ferguson has been driving me crazy in the house all the time. We have only been able to manage a 4 walks in a week! Not nearly enough to keep my sanity! I don't have a big back yard he can run in. We usually go to the ball field at the park for that.Luckily today the sun is out so we are off to the park to burn off that puppy energy!

So give me some pointers for the next ice storm. What do you do to keep your doodle occupied when you're stuck in the house?

[Marni and Hanna]

Hanna & I like to play "Hide & Seek".  I put her in a sit/stay and then once Im "hidden" I call for her.  I like that it practices her stays, and it seems to make her mentally tired as well.  If she needs some help finding me, I will whistle for her, and that helps her find me, and then I can use that whistle other times when I want her to come as well.  Once she finds me, I put her in another sit/stay right there and off I go, that way she doesnt see where I go and its not too easy for her.   

[Pat and Traveler]

You could hide pieces of kibble around a room and make a big fuss with more treats when she finds the kibble.  That would be sort of like the beginning of nose work==exercises body and mind. 

[Camilla and Darwin]

Fun idea! 

[Camilla and Darwin]

We like to freeze plain yogurt mixed with peanut butter or pumpkin inside of a kong, then give it to Darwin. He'll work at it for a good 30 minutes, then he's tuckered out after. We also do indoor fetch, which is an impressive feat considering that we live in an apartment. LOL

[Chels*Claud*Midas]

haha we do indoor fetch too and I too live in an apartment.. I go from my room and toss something into the living room...he flies off the bed and into the living room...sends my area rug flying into the tree and he slides and comes darting back! lol quite funny!!

[Jennifer and Lily]

We play indoor fetch, puzzle games with her treats, and Lily's favorite the laser pointer. Only some of Lily's dog friends can see the laser. She gets very obsessive about the laser though, so we only play with it about twice a week. We call it "dot" :)

[Camilla and Darwin]

We played the laser game with Darwin once or twice, but stopped because he became really obsessed and looked for it for a long time after we turned it off. I've since looked around and it seems like it can be very bad for dogs. Here are two articles talking about it

http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/smartnews/2012/07/how-laser-pointer...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/26/laser-dog-beams-canines-cr...

And here is one that takes more of the other side

http://thecorgi.tumblr.com/post/25503715877/laser-pointers-and-dogs

[Jennifer and Lily]

I think it can be bad for some dogs. My neighbor's dog gets completely obsessed with it. My Lily knows that I control the "dot", and I reward her ocassionally for "catching" it. She also knows the commands, one more time and all done, so when it is put away she no longer looks for it. I know her limits, if she begins to become compulsive we put it away for a few weeks. Thanks for the articles!

[Diane Sloan]

I work from home so some days I  just have to keep them occupied and with 2 young ones in the house its either find something to occupy them or they rearrange the furniture as they slide across the floors!

• Starmark Bob-a-Lot is great to feed them their meals in and it comes in different sizes and can be controlled for easy to hard-best treat dispenser I have used and well we have 21 dispensers ( I mix them up)
• I am not a fan of the puzzle games as I have to be there to watch or Si picks them up and moves them to another room where I can not observe.  I bought 2 and took them back.
• Frozen kongs are wonderful!
• I also have spray cheese that I fill their hard white bones with and spread them around the house for them to look for.
• Busy Buddy Squirrel dude treat dispenser.  I have them in the large and medium and I just pop in some dog kibble and or a tiny dog bone and they are occupied for about 5-10 minutes and go back often.  I love them because you can adjust the rate of flow(but you have to cut them so no going back)  I just leave them as is because the kibble is small that we use.  They drop them all over to get the kibble to fall out and they are light enough and bouncy enough that the sound does not drive me crazy.
• Busy Buddy Waggle again works like the Squirrel but has 2 sides like a dumbbell it also has groves that I have rubbed peanut butter or cheese into.
• Tug a jug-but they chew the string in half and I have to make a new string its also noisy when they bang it around and I have had a few end caps crack from being tossed around
• A water bottle tied in a sock -add a soft treat for smell or some kibble so they hear it or a water bottle with kibble in it and no sock if you crunch the bottle a bit it makes it sorta like a maze to get it out.
• Busy Buddy Barnacle works the same as above but with different sized holes.
• soft flying squirrel they love this and its soft and we can play this inside down the hallway-avoiding tossing it behind the couch or they are liable to leap over the top of the couch to go find it-ohps.
• Laser pointer-we do this a bit here and there.

Since I use food for these things I just cut back on their food for the day.  I would say I only put 10 pieces of kibble in each one and leave them all over under chairs, in corners and such for them to find and they do go back to them.  I also have a book of tricks that I had a great idea I would teach them tricks when they needed their brains motivated..... still haven't used it since its hard to do so with 2 young dogs that are competing for attention.  Then the 3rd comes for treats too.

if you have room you can do a mini agility course with a stick and a couple boxes to jump over.  I also have a set of rally cards that I made and I just flip through and make a course as we can do most of it in the middle of the room.  I work a lot of stationary obedience such as sit and turn and make the dog keep at a heel position while you turn in a circle.  or puppy push ups, sit, down, sit, down, sit down, heel, down. stay. turn, spin, beg, just keeping it fast and quick to keep their brains into it.  We were working on finding people but I was still stumped at the name recognition part I worked it for a couple days then got distracted myself.

I also made some toys like a hard water bottle that I drilled a hole into for a treat dispenser, and tennis balls in a sock that is not tied so they pull them out.  A cereal box with some kibble in it that is folded closed if you dont mind the mess and your dog just shreds and does not eat, a paper towel role works the same way just fold the ends of the tube down with a treat in the middle.  You can also use a cupcake pan with tennis balls or other balls stuck in the holes with a smelly treat under one or 2 of them.  However my guy just dumped the entire pan. 

I also do the slow feeders, the ones that are mazes like Kayjen has.  I found that the more they had to work for their food the less they touched our shoes.

I also have several baskets of toys that I can bring out a new one or an old toy that they have not seen in a while.

Hope this helps.

[Chels*Claud*Midas]

great tips!!! trying the water bottle in the sock, since Midas loves both of those things! lol

[Donna P.]

Marnie, we, too, play hide and seek just like you described. Bayley LOVES it. She will dash madly from room to room till she finds me. Usually in 10 seconds. Mayzie, the beardie, will hang back and watch and when Bayley has located me, she will run over for her treat. Not a bad strategy I'm thinking.

[Lori, Quincy & Frankie]

We have a staircase and so we play toss - but my DH gets nervous since Quincy "flies" down the steps.  He also crashes in to the wall since we have wood floors and he slides around corners!

I have a treadmill, but have still not had the time/patience to get Quincy on there. It may happen this winter if the weather keeps up!  

I also think the training games tuckers them out - tuckers me out too!